Temporary bridge installed in Hinton

Josephine Moore, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
·2 min read

Nov. 22—Crews with the West Virginia Division of Highways installed a temporary bridge in Hinton over the weekend to ensure the safety of motorists driving around a massive sinkhole that opened under Highway 20, a main road for the Summers County town.

Instillation of the 125-foot bridge began early Saturday morning.

WVDOH Chief Engineer of District Operations Joe Pack said bridge assembly and installation can take between 24 and 48 hours.

The prefabricated steel bridge is similar to Bailey bridges developed by the British military during World War II, and requires assembly on site, according to a release from the WVDOH.

"We just put it together like a big Lego set," Pack said.

A similar temporary bridge was recently installed at Laneville in Tucker County to replace a bridge that had been closed for safety reasons.

During a press conference last week, Pack said the bridge is a temporary solution to the sinkhole that recently expanded.

When the sinkhole was initially discovered in June, it was about six feet wide and about 30 feet deep. Pack said it was caused when a 90-year-old drain under the road began failing, leading to its collapse.

As a result, WVDOH work crews installed a 120-foot temporary culvert and fill material under the road, but heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Nicole on Nov. 11 washed out the fill and made the sinkhole worse.

At its current size, the sinkhole is threatening to envelop the Hinton Police station which is located next to the sinkhole and was evacuated in June.

In addition to the expansion of the sinkhole, Pack said construction plans for a permanent repair were also hampered by the discovery of toxic levels of lead on site, which required WVDOH to come up with an alternate plan to repair the sinkhole without endangering the public, contractors or WVDOH work crews.

Pack said the WVDOH plans to reinforce the existing temporary culvert to restore water flow under the road until a permanent, 300-foot steel drainage structure can be installed. The WVDOH hopes to put the permanent repair out for bid by the end of 2022.

The total cost of the project is expected to be between $4 million and $6 million.